A system causes a scan angle of a directional antenna to change temporarily from a current scan angle to at least one trial scan angle during reception of predetermined portions of an information carrying signal. At the trial scan angle(s), a trial metric associated with each trial scan angle is determined by the system. The system then selects a next scan angle based on the trial metrics. Examples of predetermined portions of the information carrying signal include the Power Control Bit (PCB) and certain symbol periods of the Forward Error Correction (FEC) block.